T-Salon

In today's SCMP, Jamil Anderlini reports in Beijing that:

"The number of registered online weblogs in China more than doubled in the first three quarters of this year, according to a report released yesterday by technology research firm Analysys.

From 14.75 million at the beginning of the year, the number of registered internet-based personal diaries, or blogs, had jumped to 33.36 million by the end of September, the report said."

This is the largest total number of Chinese weblogs and internet diaries that have been reported in the news so far. And that's just because internet-based personal diaries from Tencent and a few other websites were included.

Update: Asiapundit has actually talked to Analysys and this is what he cautions about the numbers:

The 33 million statistic, and the market share held by Q-zone and Netease, should be viewed with this in mind:

* The QQ and Netease numbers are inflated as they represent, as Analysys states, 'registered' blogs but not necessarily active bloggers. As well, active bloggers in China often change servers.
* There are a lot of abandoned blogs out there, and there are many blogs that are registered but may consist of nothing more than a post saying 'hello.'
* There are probably 100-130 internet users in China... far less than one-third of them blog.
* This is also likely true for the English-language blogosphere. Consider, of 21 million blogs Technorati tracks - three of them are mine - one not updated since February 2003 and the other idle since early October.

Links:
Analysys International Press Release: "China's Registered Bloggers Doubled in the First 3 Quarters of 2005 with QQ, Netease and Blogcn Rank Top 3."

See also:
Media firms' research methodologies by ESWN.